What should I do??!

yuiconnor
yuiconnor Posts: 32
edited November 8 in Health and Weight Loss
hello everyone.
I need some advice. ;)
about me: 23yrs, female, 5 ft, currently between 118-122lbs

I was 140 lbs after I graduated from high school, because I was in a boarding school, so I basically eat whatever they provided.... it was bad.... In college, I kind of started to watch my scale, and learned basic nutrition, and eat heathier... I dropped 10 lbs in one year.. In the begining of this year, I learned about healthy eating... I saw the raw vegan diet, and decided to give it a try.... Then I tried vegan+vegetarian for 3 months, feeling great, but I do miss meat, My weight dropped from 130 to 116-ish (I did gain 2 lbs back after switching back)... and was exercising 3-5 times a week..

My diet became a little bit extreme, because I was determining what is good/bad food...(that was definitely not healthy) I read and watched more videos, researches, and papers about general nutrition and diet tips.. and decided to switch back to eat a balanced diet...

November until mid-January. I don't have gym access because of relocation and family and school and others..., so I was doing some small exercises at home such as blogilates, insanity, or running outside if the weather is ok.... I also tried to control my calorie intake in between 1440..
So my question is:
1. should I focus on toning my body rather than focus on the numbers? I really want to get down to 110 lbs if possible, is that ok?
2. is 1400+ calorie sounds reasonable?
3. I don't do cheat meal but I do have unhealthy choices within calorie range.. [such as today I will be getting a cupcake from a co-worker.]


*please don't judge on the vegan/vegetarian changing because I never intended to stick to that diet for life, I just want to try it. I do realize I started to like whole food more, but I do miss some chips and junk food from time to time.

*excuse for my language inaccuracy if any, english is not my first language :)

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!!!!!!!!!! feel free to add me as a friend or inbox me, I support everyone :) My diet is private right now but it will be opened in the mid-december. currently have some personal issues.

Replies

  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    yuiconner you are young and seem to be on the road to learn all you can have healthy eating so I expect you will be fine. I wish I knew what you already know 40 years ago but most of the good info on human diets has come out in the last 10 years and better info comes out of research each year.

    We now know from research that some of the bodies 50 hormones working with our brain works to control our weight.

    I as most on here are not in a legal position to advise you on what you should eat or weight but from your posted info I think you will figure out what works for your body over time and will do it. When we get three times older than you our options are more limited because our long term diets have worked for us or against us for so many years but it is never too late to improve one's diet even if the effect of doing so will not fix what we broke over the years.

    Best of luck and keep reading and testing what works for your body because no one will ever know your body like you if you keep on the path you are taking today.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    edited December 2014
    Your doctor is the best person to advise you on your weight. He can tell you what you should weigh. If you selected a weight that is in the "Normal" range on the BMI (Body Mass Index) charts, you have probably made a wise choice.

    1400 is not too high. The doctor would know best. If you lose a pound or two a month, that is great! If you do not lose weight for a month, try eating a little less the next month.

    If you want to lift weights, you should! It's good for your muscles and your bones!

    Regular exercise (like walking, running, swimming) is good, too. It helps you lose weight and is good for your heart and blood vessels. :)

    Your English is excellent!!! I have a lot of experience communicating with people (mostly from Asia) who learned English as a second language. Sometimes, it is not easy to figure out what they were trying to say. I had no problems at all with your post. You are doing MUCH better than most! Wonderful, really. I am learning another language and if I get as good at that as you are in English, I will joyfully jump up and down and cheer. :)
  • yuiconnor
    yuiconnor Posts: 32
    GaleHawkins wrote: »
    yuiconner you are young and seem to be on the road to learn all you can have healthy eating so I expect you will be fine. I wish I knew what you already know 40 years ago but most of the good info on human diets has come out in the last 10 years and better info comes out of research each year.

    We now know from research that some of the bodies 50 hormones working with our brain works to control our weight.

    I as most on here are not in a legal position to advise you on what you should eat or weight but from your posted info I think you will figure out what works for your body over time and will do it. When we get three times older than you our options are more limited because our long term diets have worked for us or against us for so many years but it is never too late to improve one's diet even if the effect of doing so will not fix what we broke over the years.

    Best of luck and keep reading and testing what works for your body because no one will ever know your body like you if you keep on the path you are taking today.

    thank you so much for replying. and wow... 50 hormones!? this is crazy...

    I am trying to figure out what food does what for my body, play around a little bit, even if I'm gaining, it's still good to see the result of certain food.

    Even though I'm still stressing on the numbers, I was not so crazy about it. but thanks again.:)
  • yuiconnor
    yuiconnor Posts: 32
    Kalikel wrote: »
    Your doctor is the best person to advise you on your weight. He can tell you what you should weigh. If you selected a weight that is in the "Normal" range on the BMI (Body Mass Index) charts, you have probably made a wise choice.

    1400 is not too high. The doctor would know best. If you lose a pound or two a month, that is great! If you do not lose weight for a month, try eating a little less the next month.

    If you want to lift weights, you should! It's good for your muscles and your bones!

    Regular exercise (like walking, running, swimming) is good, too. It helps you lose weight and is good for your heart and blood vessels. :)

    Your English is excellent!!! I have a lot of experience communicating with people (mostly from Asia) who learned English as a second language. Sometimes, it is not easy to figure out what they were trying to say. I had no problems at all with your post. You are doing MUCH better than most! Wonderful, really. I am learning another language and if I get as good at that as you are in English, I will joyfully jump up and down and cheer. :)

    I tried weight lifting but I was not able to *go* any further. I stopped at 45 lbs for deadlift, and I will pick up on it when my life goes back to normal.

    Thank you for your reply. May I know what language are you trying to learn? It's always cool to learn languages. I'm also learning a third language - Japanese - and it's fun to read what they really think, rather than reading translated messages from news.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    Your 50 hormones.

    e.hormone.tulane.edu/learning/types-of-hormones.html

    Here is a list of them.
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_hormones

    yuiconner over time by doing dieting research you will learn how some of your hormones and brain will work to control your weight where you eat little or much.
  • quellybelly
    quellybelly Posts: 827 Member
    I would definitely recommend some weight lifting if your goal is to tone :) check out my profile pictures and you'll see that the number on the scale plays tricks -- a smaller number does not necessarily mean you will look better. As for how many calories to eat, search the "TDEE method" in the MFP forums. I used to have a good link, but it doesn't work since MFP has updated. The TDEE method will give you a calorie goal based on your stats, and how often you plan on working out. If you also want to lose weight, you'll see they recommend subtracting 20% from whatever TDEE goal is given to you.

    Hope this helps, best of luck!
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
    1. should I focus on toning my body rather than focus on the numbers? I really want to get down to 110 lbs if possible, is that ok?

    Why not do both? You cna do the toning with your exercise and you can lose the weight with calorie counting. 110 is fine for you and bang in the middle of a healthy BMI. You are still at a healthy weight now at 122.

    2. is 1400+ calorie sounds reasonable? Your maintenance for sedentary comes in at 1630, so 1400 should be fine if you supplement it with a bit of exercise. 1/2 lb a week is on the small margins of 250 calories a day, so it is a small deficit meaning you need to keep an eye on it and log accurately because it will be easy to overshoot. Weigh your food and log the exercise, then watch the scales over a period and ajust so you lose about 1/2lb a week imo. Its tricky to get this right hence the need to be accurate.

    3. I don't do cheat meal but I do have unhealthy choices within calorie range.. [such as today I will be getting a cupcake from a co-worker.] You can have ten cup cakes, it doesnt matter (for nutriyion it will) as long as you are in deficit for weight loss. Its nice to have a few treats.

    4. Your English is very good and you are way smarter about weight than many ive seen or I was at your age.
  • yuiconnor
    yuiconnor Posts: 32
    quellybelly wrote: »
    I would definitely recommend some weight lifting if your goal is to tone :) check out my profile pictures and you'll see that the number on the scale plays tricks -- a smaller number does not necessarily mean you will look better. As for how many calories to eat, search the "TDEE method" in the MFP forums. I used to have a good link, but it doesn't work since MFP has updated. The TDEE method will give you a calorie goal based on your stats, and how often you plan on working out. If you also want to lose weight, you'll see they recommend subtracting 20% from whatever TDEE goal is given to you.

    Hope this helps, best of luck!

    Thanks! are you on any of the lifting workout schedule or do you just create your own? I used to do 1 leg day, and 2-3 upper body days per week with 1-2 cardio sessions. May I know how you split your workouts?

    I will look into TDEE method an figure out my actual numbers. thx again :smiley:
  • quellybelly
    quellybelly Posts: 827 Member
    edited December 2014
    yuiconnor wrote: »
    quellybelly wrote: »
    I would definitely recommend some weight lifting if your goal is to tone :) check out my profile pictures and you'll see that the number on the scale plays tricks -- a smaller number does not necessarily mean you will look better. As for how many calories to eat, search the "TDEE method" in the MFP forums. I used to have a good link, but it doesn't work since MFP has updated. The TDEE method will give you a calorie goal based on your stats, and how often you plan on working out. If you also want to lose weight, you'll see they recommend subtracting 20% from whatever TDEE goal is given to you.

    Hope this helps, best of luck!

    Thanks! are you on any of the lifting workout schedule or do you just create your own? I used to do 1 leg day, and 2-3 upper body days per week with 1-2 cardio sessions. May I know how you split your workouts?

    I will look into TDEE method an figure out my actual numbers. thx again :smiley:
    No problem, happy to help :)

    I lift heavy 4x a week. I do a body split -- shoulders, back/bicep, chest/tricep, and legs. I do cardio 1-3x a week and either after lifting, or on a separate day (depending on my schedule).

    Not sure what your current routine is like, but if you're new to heavy lifting I'd recommend checking out the Stronglifts 5x5 program. It's what I started out with and then after a few months of the program, I switched to my current body split routine. If you're interested, check out the link below :)

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/560459/stronglifts-5x5-summary/p1
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